■^ * ^ ^ -• ..^A.^A^^^^^A.A.^AA.^i.^AAA.^AAA.k. h 7 ' f Pitch your Tent among the Dead. AN APPEAL TO YOUNG MEN. Conclusion of a Speech Delivereo at Cleveland, Ohio, % BY JAMES A. GARFIELD, H«e-Ou tlie Saturday >iijtlit before tlie *>llio•^>" iClection of 1879. Now, fellow-citizens, a word before I leave you, on the very eve of the holy clay of God — a tit moment to consecrate ourselves liually to the «,Teat work of next Tuesday morning. I see in this vast audience to- ni<^ut a oreiit manv voun<^ men — voung men who are about to cast their first vote. I want to give them a word of suggestion and advice. I heard a very brilliant thing said by a boy, the other day, in one of our noi-th-westem counties. He said to me, " Oeneral, I have a great mind to vote the DemocTatic ticket." That was not the brilliant thing. I said to him, • Win ?" " AVhy," said lie '* my father is a Republi*- aii, and my brothei^s are Ecj)ubhcan8, and I am a Uepublican all over; but I want to be an independent man, and I don't want anybody to say, ' That fellow votes the Republican ticket just be(;aus(» his dad does,' and I have half a mind to vote the Democratic^ tii'ket just to prove my independence." I did not like tlie thing he suggested, but I did admu-o the spiiit of the hoy that wanted to have some indepeud- , enc«i of liis own. A •0 90© o OO 3 >■» f » f T fi ^ f yvy vv v v »v»* »»*f»ff » <»»»y^'**^**'''^"''' Now, youii';" man, don't vote the Republican ticket just because your father votes it. Don't vote the Democratic ticket, even if he does vote it. But let me give you this one word of advice, as you are about to jiitcli your tent in one of the great political camps. Your life is full and buoyant with hope now, Jind when you pitch your tent, I beg you to pitch it among the living and not among the dead. If you are at all inchned to pitch it within the lines of the Democratic party, let me go with you for a moment wliile we survey the gi'ound where I hope you will not shortly lie. It is a sad place, young man, for you to put your young life into. It is far more like a gi*ave-yard than like a camp for the hving. Look at it ! It is billowed all over with the gi'aves of. dead i.ssues, of buried opinions, of exploded theories, of disgraced doctrines. You cannot live in comfort in such a phicf. AVhy, look here ! Here is a double mound. I look do^^-n on it and read: " Sacred to the memory of Squatter Sovereignty and the Dred Scott DecLsion." A million and a half of Democrats voted for these, but they have been dead fifteen years — died by the hand of Abraham Lincoln, and here they lie. Young man, that is not the place for you. But look a little further. Here is another mound, a black tomb, and above it towel's to the sky a monument of foui- niilhon jmirs of human fetters biken from Uie limbs of slaves, and I read on its grim face: •'Sacred to the memory of Human Slavery." For forty yearn of its infamous life the Democratic })arty tiiught that it was divine — God's institution. They defended it, they stood around it. they followed it to itfl gi*ave as inouniei-s. lint here it lies, dead by the liand of Abnili.iiit Lincoln; ilvtul \>\ tlie jxjwer of tlie Republican party ; ib-ud by the jiuitioc of Almi{^hty God. Don't ninip then*, yoiinj^ man. But here is anotluT a little brinintono t/)nib ineforo we leave 1 dis<'over a new-made g^rave, a little mound - shoH. The j^Tass has hardly sprouted over it, and all around I see toni pie<'e8 of paper with the word " tiat " on them, and I look down in cunosity, wondering what the little f^rtixo is, and I read: "Sacred to the memory of the Ba«^ Baby; nursed in the brain of \nld fanaticism; r«H"ked by Thomas Kwiji;^^ (ieorj/e H. Pendleton, Samuel Carev, and a few others throughout the land. But it died on the Ist of January, 1879, and the one hundrehu < in which to ])ut your young life. Come out »uid enter this <*am{> of lil)erty, of onler, of law, of justii • of free • \rs! >t's rhrcf Iniii'bt '1 "i.l fiffv thotis^md soldi*''-^. ♦!••• ?T*= -^<^ noblest band that ever trod the earth, died to make this a camp of f^lory aud of hbeily forever. But tl+ere' are no dead issues here. Tliere are no dead ideas ^^ here. Han<^ out (jur banner from the bhie sky'tliis ni«,dit until it shall sweep the green turf under your feet. It hangs over our camp. Read away uj) under the stai>> the inscriptions we have written upon it. lo ! these twenty-five years. Twenty- five yeai*s ago tlie Republican part}' was married to Libert v, and this is our silver weddiuir. A worthily married j^air hjve each other better on the day of theu* silver wedding than on the day of theii- tirst espousal ; and we are truer to Liberty to-day and dearer to God than when we spoke our fii-st word of liberty. Read away up under the sky across our starry banner those first words we uttered twenty- tive years ago : " Slavery shall never extend over another foot of the territory of the great AVest I " Ls that dead or alive V .Vlive, thank God, for evermore ! And truer to-night than it was the hour it was written. Then it was a hope, a promise, a puii)Ose. To-night, im|X'rishable as the stai-s- it is inmiortiil liistory, immortal truth. Come down the ghn'ious folds of our bamicr. Every great record we have made we have vindicated with our blood and our truth. It sweeps the earth and it touches tlio stai-s. Come into tliis camj), young man, and ])ut in your young life where all is living, and wliere nothing is deatl but the hen>es . that defend('